


The Speed At Which A Person Would Fall

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Diving, F/M, Forests, High School, Mountains, Walks In The Woods, cliff diving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 14:49:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12390291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: Jean Kirschtein meets someone in the woods who doesn't know who he is.





	The Speed At Which A Person Would Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Goddamn, I haven't written any Jeankasa in a while. I feel like I've been neglecting this couple even though I love them so much. 
> 
> You know, I highly considered making Jean a lacrosse player in this AU, but I really wanted to make him an 'artsy kid' or anything in that vein.

September brought a cool draft of air across the warm land, leaving all traces of summer obsolete with each passing day.

Jean kicked fallen pinecones as he walked through the uneven terrain. He was following the sound of the waterfall, which was getting closer to him with every step he took. The rocks in the ground were hewn at sharp angles, slowly sloping upwards like a staircase carved by nature.

It did not take a lot of time for Jean to get where he wanted to go. By now, he was well-versed on the trails of the forest. Weekends of exploring the mountains had familiarized him with each path and each direction.

The clearing he arrived at was a place he was planning to visit all summer, though his prospects at his summer job left an abysmal amount of spare time on his hands.

It turned out that everything Jean had heard about performing physical labour was true: it both built character _and_ left him absolutely exhausted.

It felt good to be in the forest again, like a breath of fresh air after being stuck in small town life for so long.

The neck of the woods was condensed with coniferous trees. Jean walked across an endless amount of fallen pine needles, his canvas shoes kicking a few aside as he went.

In moments, Jean came to the place where he wanted to be.

The greenery cleared out to reveal a waterfall, which all collected in a pool of blue against the grey rocks. The water trickled out in crevasses and streams, ribbons of moving clarity against the earthy tones of the forest.

It was a beautiful sight to behold. It was something far removed from the small town below the mountains, someone the town goers would never know about if they refused to venture up.

Jean knew that once school started up again, he would not have any spare time to trek up to the woods and draw to his heart’s desire. So once he found a good angle to observe the cascading falls at, Jean sat down on a smooth slab of rock. It was on a ledge just meters above the water below.

He hoped that he was far enough from the edge that he wouldn’t fall down. Though if he did, it would be a short drop compared to the other cliffs around the water pool.

All that mattered was that Jean could see the waterfall. The sunlight hit it at the perfect angle. It made the water shimmer with an enticing gleam.

Once he was settled down in a spot, Jean took his backpack off and unzipped the top. Out he pulled his sketchbook and a bundle of watercolour pencils bound together with a rubber band.

The sound of the waterfall hummed into his ears. Jean was already past the point where all elements of urban life were far behind him. It was hard to believe that just down the mountain was a small town built on the backs of coal miners, fishermen, and cannery workers.

Jean undid his bundle and grabbed a slate-coloured pencil to start his next project. Just as he held it to a blank sheet in his sketchbook, he heard some rustling.

Quickly, Jean darted his gaze towards the direction where the sound came from. Looking up, he focused on a protruding ledge a few meters above his position.

Jean clutched onto his pencil with a firm grip. He knew that a dull watercolour pencil was not enough to potentially ward off a mountain lion or a coyote or a bear. Therefore, Jean was rather thankful when he discovered that the source of the rustling sound was not an animal, but a person instead.

A teenage girl stood atop the ledge, a backpack slung over her shoulders and focus clouding her gaze.

Immediately, Jean took in her appearance – dark eyes, even darker hair, and face locked into an observant stare. She seemed to be about his age, maybe give or take a few years.

For a moment, Jean tried to think if he had ever went to school with her. But after a second, he got his answer right away.

He knew that he had seen that head of black hair somewhere before.

Mikasa Ackerman moved slowly towards the edge of the cliff and peered down curiously. She then stared up at the sky, looking at the sunlight as it hit the falling water.

The moment he saw her moving close ledge, Jean’s reflexes kicked in. Panic surged through his system. Before he knew it, he opened his mouth and blurted out the first words on his mind.

_“HEY!”_

Immediately, Mikasa Ackerman pulled her eyes away from the sky and looked to Jean. Judging by the way her eyes blinked, Jean guessed that she was surprised to find that she was not alone.

“You’re not gonna do anything crazy, are you?” Jean asked, his voice echoing against the cliffs and stone. “Because if you are, I’m available to talk. Trust me, I’m a good listener.”

Mikasa rolled her eyes in response. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll be fine.”

She took off her backpack and let it fall on the ground. She then took off her hoodie to reveal an old t-shirt underneath.

Jean tried to guess what she was doing. The second he saw her undoing her belt to remove her pants, he quickly averted his eyes and focused back down on his paper. Whatever her intentions were, they were probably best done without the addition of a peeping tom.

Promptly, he looked over to the waterfall and started dragging his pencil across the paper. He was certainly drawing a lot faster than he usually did, but then again, the circumstances of his current situation were nothing close to _‘usual.’_

Just as Jean put down his slate-coloured pencil in favour of a teal one, he saw a quick flash of movement in the corner of his eye. He looked away from his paper just fast enough to see Mikasa Ackerman falling down from her ledge and towards the pool below.

Jean glanced over the edge just quickly enough to see her enter the water feet first. The splash she created was small; foamy bits of water were tossed up into the air in large, chunky droplets.

Jean blinked, both dumbfounded and impressed to see the feat.

“Whoa…”

The impact of the water faded away in seconds. Jean watched as the liquid settled once more, as if Mikasa had not even dove into it in the first place.

Jean looked to the edges of the pool, waiting to see Mikasa walk out of it in time.

For a few seconds, he waited and nothing happened.

“Oh, shit...”

Internally, Jean’s stomach clenched in fright. Most ventures into the woods did not involve him constantly worrying, but then again, most ventures into the woods did not involve him interacting with Mikasa Ackerman either.

Jean stood up and headed down towards the blue pool below, descending down the stone steps until he came by the water’s edge. He leapt over rocks and hopped down from ledge to ledge like an expert traceur.

When he got to the pool of water, the grip on his sketchbook was exceedingly tight.

“Mikasa?” Jean called. “Mikasa!?!”

When nothing happened yet again, the idea of jumping into the water himself popped into Jean’s head. For a moment, he actually considered doing it.

But just before the impulse in Jean became too strong, he saw bubbles forming on the surface of the water.

Mikasa rose and poked her head above the surface, her dark damp hair sticking to her face as she did so.

Upon seeing that she was okay, Jean sighed in relief, “Holy shit! Geez, are you insane, Ackerman? I thought you said you weren’t gonna do anything crazy!”  

Mikasa stood up in the water and walked until the waterline got lower and lower. “I never said that,” she responded sharply. “I just said that I’d be fine.”

As she moved, it was clear that her preferred cliff diving attire was shorts and an old t-shirt.

Mikasa stepped onto the land, barefoot and unwavering. She started to squeeze some water out of her hair.

“Still,” Jean remarked. “I never pegged you for the adrenaline junkie type.”

Mikasa looked Jean up and down, taking note of his appearance, “... I’m sorry, but do I know you?”

Jean blinked, clearly having not anticipated that question.

“Mikasa, I’m Jean,” he reminded plainly. He gave her a blank look when he saw that his words were not truly getting to her. “Jean Kirschtein? We’ve gone to school together since grade six?”

Mikasa looked puzzled, “Really?” She started to walk back up the cliffs, never minding what her feet would step on. “I think I would have remembered you.”

Jean followed her, seeing as he had left all of his drawing equipment up on a ledge. “We had social studies together last term. We were both in Mr. Ness’s class.”

“I don’t recall,” Mikasa admitted honestly. As they walked together, she looked back over her shoulder, “I’m not exactly good with faces.”

Jean sighed. A part of him felt dampered when he realized that she didn’t know him.

But he knew her though, plenty of people in the school did. It was a side effect of being on one of the sports teams, having your name constantly said in the morning announcements or in the school newsletter.

Jean soon figured that the center forward of the soccer team had other things to do than notice him. It wasn’t like Jean was the quarterback of the football team or anything.

Some people in life were simply unnoticeable, Jean guessed that he was one of them.

Jean passed by his backpack and pencils to follow Mikasa up to her ledge. When they got there, the first thing Mikasa did was reach into her bag. She pulled out a thin towel, the kind that Olympic swimmers used, and rubbed the droplets off her arms.  

From the look of her efficiency when it came to diving, it seemed that this was not her first time.

Out of curiosity, Jean walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He could feel his gut twisting the second he realized just how high he and Mikasa were standing.

“Holy shit…” he muttered. Sucking in a breath, Jean turned back towards Mikasa. He scratched the back of his hand with his hand, “So… come here often?”

“Since the start of summer,” Mikasa answered. She laid her towel down on a raised slab of stone and sat on it.

“Interesting,” Jean responded. “You know, some can sing, some can dance, and others can jump off cliffs and live to see another day.”

“There’s nothing to it,” Mikasa claimed. She seemed surprisingly comfortable while soaking wet in the midst of September. “The first time’s a little rough, but it gets easier the more you do it.”

“Still,” Jean admitted. He looked down again for good measure. Sure enough, his fear of falling/belly-flopping onto water was still present. “I’m not crazy enough to give it a try.”

“You don’t have to be crazy to cliff dive,” Mikasa pointed out. “You just need some guts.”

“Fine, then I’m not gutsy enough to try it,” Jean corrected. He put his hands into the pockets of his denim trousers, “Why do you do it though? Does soccer not give you the same thrill?”

“I’m getting in some jumps before school starts,” she explained simply. “My family doesn’t exactly know that I come up here...”

“So you lie to your parents to get a few thrills?” Jean wonders out loud.

Mikasa shakes her head, “Not to my parents, my foster parents.”

“You’re a foster kid?”

“It’s complicated,” Mikasa responded plainly.

Suddenly, the force in her voice was starting to fade away. She started to sound rather dejected, “You know, you don’t have to talk to me like we’re friends. Besides, why are you here?” Her tone was starting to get accusatory. “Do you just lurk in the bushes in the hopes of seeing a pretty girl?”

“Trust me, Ackerman, I have better things to do than lurk around,” Jean assured.

Mikasa’s gaze soon affixed themselves to the sketchbook in Jean’s hands, “And what exactly is that?”

“I draw,” Jean answered. He held the book up to her, “Wanna see? I mean… it’s not much. But it’s uh… it’s something.” He was never truly sure how good his work was. Perhaps it was a matter of perspective, but in Jean’s eyes, he always saw artistic abilities as something he needed to improve on.

Mikasa looked at the book and then back at him. There was hesitant essence in her gaze, as if his book was something she should not be touching. But yet she reached forward, taking the book and opening it up to the first page.

Jean remembered exactly what he had drawn in that book so far, from a flower he found on the mountain last month to the neon sign outside the diner his mother used to wait tables at.

He never thought he would be here, watching Mikasa Ackerman look over his work while he wore the most billowy green button-up shirt in the history of billowy green button-up shirts.

He noticed her gaze softening up when she took in his creations.

“Hm, these are quite good,” Mikasa responded in the bluntest voice possible. She was currently looking at a drawing of a crane above an abandoned mine.

“You sound surprised,” Jean remarked.

“Because I am,” Mikasa confirmed. She handed the book back to him, “You should go to art school.”

“I’m considering that,” Jean responded, tucking his book underneath his arm. “It’ll be pricy though. Do you think I worked construction all summer because I just love concrete so much?”  

“Construction?” Mikasa questioned curiously. She looked him up and down as she stepped back to the ledge. “You don’t seem like the type.”

With that statement said, Mikasa, unbreakable in her composure, hopped off the edge of the cliff and fell down to the water below. It was almost like she wanted to avoid hearing his response to his words, and it seemed that the only way for her to do that was to leap down several meters.

Jean watched her go down. He peeped over the edge just in time to see her enter the water, her impact being smooth and seamless.

He sighed, amazed and astounded. In his current state, he ran his fingers through his scruffy hair.

In a single moment, Jean contemplated many things; the speed at which a person would fall, the impact of the water, and temperature of the water in the late afternoon.

Something clicked in him, something that Jean could not exactly make sense of. Either way, that fear he felt when he looked over the cliff had disappeared.

Soon, he took in a deep breath and muttered, “Oh, fuck it.”

Then he proceeded to undo the buttons on his billowy green button-up shirt.

Mikasa had come up from the water and climbed up the cliff, just as before. She came up to the original ledge after a short trek. Needless to say, when she walked up to see Jean removing his clothing, she was a lot more than simply ‘confused.’

She looked at him with her eyebrows raised, “What the hell are you doing?”

Jean was in the process of taking off his pants, “The same thing you are, getting a few jumps in before school starts.” He was down to his boxer briefs. “You know, I spent all summer working. My neighbour basically conscripted me into helping him flip houses for his construction company. I didn’t have any time for anything else.”

Jean kicked his trousers to the side and glanced back at Mikasa, “So help me out here? How does one jump off these things without going splat?”

“Well, uh… uh...” Mikasa started. Abruptly, she stuttered and cleared her throat.

“...go in feet first, it’s safer that way,” she instructed. She walked to the edge of the cliff, not bothering to dry off with her towel before doing so. “And don’t try any fancy flips or anything. Just focus on landing on your feet and you should be fine.”

“What if things go bad?”

“Then I am very sorry and I’ll write out your will.”

Jean nodded, “Alright. So ladies first? Or are you going down with me?”

“I’ll go with you now,” Mikasa said, facing him completely.

“On your count then, Ackerman,” agreed Jean, nodding intently. He focused on the ledge, looking forward instead of looking down. He anticipated Mikasa’s signal, whether it be a countdown from three or the words ‘Go!’  

However, he didn’t get any kind of signal for a few silent moments.

Jean turned his head to Mikasa, who appeared to be staring at him and only him.

“What?”

Mikasa shook her head, pushing some thoughts out of her head, “Nothing. Let’s go. On my count.”

Jean smirked, “As you wish.”

“Three… two… _one!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Weird note, but I'm Canadian and I use a bit of Canadian vernacular in my writing. I'm not gonna use words like 'bunny hug' or anything, but I use a little bit. 'Grade six' vs. 'Sixth grade,' for example. 
> 
> Just thought I'd point that out if anyone's a little confused.


End file.
